New Hatfield school may be built on land previously earmarked for incinerator

A new secondary school may be built in Hatfield on land formerly earmarked for a waste incinerator.

The borough and county councils have agreed that, as part of Welwyn Hatfield’s Local Plan, an additional school may be built on the New Barnfield site if more housing is needed.

It comes after Herts County Council raised concerns about insufficient schools provision in the borough council’s plan, following which a “statement of common ground” was made.

At a public hearing yesterday, borough and county councillor Paul Zukowskyj said: “The common ground statement over release of New Barnfield if needed for a secondary school has not gone through any democratic process that I know of.

“The first I heard of that was reading the statement of common ground.”

However, planning inspector Melvyn Middleton said it was still early in the process and reliant on whether additional housing will be needed, which has not yet been confirmed.